welcome to nhk world "newsline," i'm gene otani in tokyo. here's a look at some of the stories we're following this hour. japanese prime minister shinzo abe and u.s. vice president joe biden say they stand united in their response to china's newly declared air defense zone. protests in thailand have police trying another way to calm demonstrators. they've let the people into their headquarters and the prime minister's office.

a young american woman killed in the march 11 disaster wished to be a bridge between japan and the u.s. now her parents are working to keep that dream alive. u.s. vice president joe biden says his country will stand by japan in the face of a new dispute involving china. he just wrapped up a meeting with prime minister shinzo abe. the leaders shared ideas on how to approach chinese authorities following their air defense identification zone over the east china sea. >> translator: we confirmed that japan and the united states will not tolerate china's attempt to unilaterally change the status quo. we also agree our countries will continue to work closely together to deal with the matter base on the strong u.s./japan relationships. >> translator: the united states has an interest in lowering tensions in this vital region, as i believe all the countries in northeast asia share that

same interest with us. this underscores the need for crisis management mechanisms and effective channels of communication between china and japan to reduce the risk of escalation. i will be raising these concerns with great specificity directly when i meet with the chinese leadership the day after tomorrow. >> vice president biden is on a six-day asian tour that will take him from tokyo to beijing, and then on to seoul. the trip was planned before chinese authorities announced last month they'd set up the air defense identification zone. they said all foreign aircraft must give prior notice before entering the area. they warned they may use force. the zone involves a group of islands. biden is set to meet on wednesday with chinese president xi jinping and other leaders in

beijing. he'll head to south korea later in the week. u.s. leaders say they are opposed to the requirements the chinese are imposing and they've repeated they will not change how their military operates in the region. >> our requirements for operating exceed internationally accepted practice. >> authorities in beijing said late last month that all foreign aircraft traveling through the zone must submit flight plans in advance and follow orders, or face emergency measures. u.s. government officials decided last week to allow u.s. carriers do what they ask. an official with the pentagon is playing down an incident that occurred in the zone. spokesperson steven warren said u.s. military planes encountered nothing unusual when they flew through last week. warren said american military planes will continue to operate

in the area as normal. antigovernment demonstrators in thailand are refusing to back down, but now police have surprised them by adopting a new approach. >> antigovernment protests in thailand have claimed four lives and injured 300 people in the past week. demonstrators are demanding the resignation of yingluck shinawatra. on tuesday they removed barriers and let them in, in an attempt to diffuse tension and prevent a full fledged conflict. the scene in front of the prime minister's office on tuesday was dramatically different from a day earlier. police stood back and let protesters remove the barricades, eventually letting them enter the compound. the situation was similar at the

metropolitan police headquarters. demonstrators targeted the building after protest leaders called on them to rally there. police lifted the barricades and let them in. the tactic was in stark contrast to their hard-lined response the day before. police had announced on monday they'd obtained an arrest warrant. a short time later, suthep hold protesters to storm the building. the protests started last month. critics say the bill was intended to pave the way for her older brother, former prime minister thaksin shinawatra, to return to thailand. he lost power seven years ago in a coup and now lives out of the country. he continued to win elections easily. yingluck has inherited his

policies. anti-thaksin groups accused him of pork barrelling. observers are watching to see how a birthday on thursday affects the protests. the king enjoys the overwhelming respect of the public. protest leaders say he wants to resolve the political turmoil before then. as the king's birthday and insi and southeast asia every week day live from bangkok only on nhk "newsline." global representatives are gathering once again to talk free trade. uko? >> as you say, gene, they are meeting up again, but more and more countries are opting for bilateral trade and they are not giving up, though, top trade officials from 159 nations and territories have gathered on the indonesian island of bali.

the negotiators are attending a four-day biannual ministerial session of the world trade organization, attempting to save the deadlock around free trade talks. indonesian president attended the opening ceremony. he said the delegates need to show a strong political will to make progress. >> must find more flexibility for the good of the wto. >> the wto director general also expressed hope for the negotiations. >> it feels sometimes that the wto has been through a long, dark night, and i hope that perhaps here in bali we will once again see the morning of the world trade organization. >> the participants are foefblged on three issues, customs procedures, agriculture, and development.

let's get you a check on the markets now. investors are feeling nervous. they think the federal reserve will scale back, following a sign of strong factory activity in the u.s. speculation is pushing down the price of european equities and commodities. london's ftse is down a tenth of a percent and taking a serious beating. also in frankfurt, the dax is down over 1% and paris, the cac40 is down. in asia, the jitters about the fed also hurt many sources. kospi fell 1%. it was the worst performer in the region. meanwhile, yen lifted tokyo shares. nikkei closed at a fresh high. dollar/yen is trading right now at 102.78-81. market players are waiting on a

series of economic data at the end of the week. the major focus will be the key jobs report on friday. euro/yen is changing hands at 139.44-46. earlier, the currency rose above the 140 yen level for the first time in more than five years. japanese workers could soon be rewarded with bigger salaries. the nation's largest labor federation decided to demand a rise in basic pay for the first time in five years. it will make the demand in next year's negotiations. the federation made the decision after considering the increase in consumption tax scheduled for april. >> translator: society will face confusion if wages fail to increase along with the rise in prices. >> dengo will also try to improve the working conditions for nonregular workers.

it plans to encourage the introduction of rurals to help convert to full-time employees. members will submit their demands to their companies and management by february. japanese officials are putting together a stimulus package to drive economic growth. they plan to spend about $53 billion to counter the impact of the planned consumption tax hike. the stimulus sets aside $10 billion for japanese firms for innovative drugs and smaller firms overseas. the package also includes about $3.2 in cash payments to people whose incomes are below a certain level and it earmarks about $1.5 billion to ease the financial burden for home buyers. the government will also spend $10 billion to accelerate the recovery in fukushima and other disaster-hit areas. officials plan to finalize the

measures in coming weeks. they'll compile an extra budget by mid-december to carry out the stimulus. u.s. internet retailers may face growing government pressure to collect sales taxes, even in states where they have no fiscal presence. the u.s. supreme court's hearing amazon.com's appeal. amazon officials had originally filed a lawsuit in new york. they said they shouldn't have to collect the tax because they have no business facilities in the state. the officials cited a supreme court ruling said a state government cannot impose a sales tax on businesses unless they have a physical presence in that state. amazon lost the case, however, and filed an appeal. the supreme court didn't give reasons for its decision not to rule on the case. different states in the u.s. have different tax systems. experts point out that some of

those systems may have become outdated in the age of the internet. that's it from business. i'll leave you with the market figures. japanese researchers have made a discovery that could help people with a type of cancer that's difficult to treat. they've identified genetic mutations unique to cancer of the bile duct. the researchers studied tissue

samples from 66 patients. they found significant mutations in part of a certain gene. about 20,000 people in japan are diagnosed with bile duct cancer every year. the five-year survival rate is just over 20%. he leads the cancer genomics institute in tokyo. >> translator: we hope this discovery will lead to clinical applications as soon as possible. >> researchers say they hope to begin clinical trials by the middle of next year on chemotherapy treatments that zero in on the mutations. japan's emperor and everyone res have received a grand welcome. the imperial couple attended a banquet at the presidential palace in new delhi. the reception opened with the japanese and indian national anthems. about 90 guests from the two countries welcomed the emperor and empress.

the indian president gave an opening address, then the emperor reminisced about his official visit as crowned prince 53 years ago, and he praised india's dedication to peace. the emperor said he hopes japan and india can continue bilateral cooperation and friendship. he thanked for the help after the earthquake and tsunami. japan coast guard officials say an islet keeps getting bigger and bigger. the land mass surfaced about 1,000 kilometers south of tokyo. sunday, coast guard officials

conducted an aerial survey and determined the islet is now 250 meters wide and 200 meters long. that's about two and a half times bigger than when it was spotted two weeks ago. officials now say they've found three craters pushing out ash and lava helping to make the islet grow. the coast guard will continue to monitor the islet's activity. people all over japan will take a moment to pause and reflect this thursday. december 5th marks 1,000 days since the earthquake and tsunami struck in march 2011. american taylor anderson was over one of 15,000 killed in the disaster. she was a 24-year-old english teacher in miyagi prefecture. that day taylor made sure all the children were safe. taylor's family set up a fund in her name soon after the disaster. it's dedicated to helping children in affected areas. her parents, gene and andy

anderson are visiting japan. caroline kennedy met with them on monday to talk about how the u.s. can help with the recovery. this is the anderson's fifth visit to japan since the tragedy. they joined us in the studio to tell us what brings them back. >> we saw the horrible devastation to hoe chi area and that tragedy also became our tragedy when we lost taylor. we felt the part of the region, we wanted to clearly help them out, and we keep on coming back because there's a need, and that need helps us to heal, and we always just feel a part of japan. >> our first project with taylor's fund was to fund reading corners for the seven schools in which taylor taught. taylor really loved to read. that's kind of how she found her dream, found out what she wanted

to do in life, so we felt like if we passed that on to her students, that they too might find that love for reading and want to live their dreams. and our big project we announced this year and started this year is called smile together and that's really to try and help the smiles come back to the faces of the people, as well as ourselves, and it has to do with mental stress relief, workshops, youth leadership programs. >> jeanne and andy say they want to stand by disaster victims as they rebuild and to serve as a bridge between the u.s. and japan, just as taylor had wanted. >> we are now registering her fund as an npo in japan with major help from the ambassador. the next time, we have lots of things that we'd like to do. we try and listen to what is

needed. we really want to focus on exchange and scholarships, so i expect we'll, you know, keep the relationships with the people that we have and the people that we meet and come back and work together on things that will help. >> taylor was a very soft spoken, energetic young woman who had a lot of dreams. one of her dreams was to come to japan and to teach english, and she was much like a japanese person. she had a quiet personality. she was courteous, she was kind to others. she loved it here. she traveled all around the country. she went to all the festivals, knew a lot of people. not just american people, but she met a lot of japanese people and made friends with them. we want to keep our daughter's memory alive, and it's building a bridge between our two countries, and that was a dream of taylor's, to be connected to

japan and have japan connected with the united states. we keep coming back because we want to make sure that bridge stays built and we've made so many wonderful friends here. it's a joy to come back and to see them all. the head of a joint mission to demolish syria's chemical agents says they are preparing to destroy them at sea. head of a joint mission between the u.n. and the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons says teams plan to carry the highly toxic chemicals to syria's main mediterranean port. with the help of other

countries, ships would transport the agents outside syria and bring them to a u.s. vessel specially equipped with a destruction facility, but security and fighting still remain major hurdles in the country. >> security remains a key challenge for all of us. as you know, the destruction of a chemical weapons program has never taken place under such challenging and dangerous conditions. >> cog is calling on the syrian government to provide support to her team. the end goal is to eliminate the syrian chemical weapons program by the middle of next year. health authorities in hong kong have confirmed the first case of human infection of the 479 n strain. researchers have found the virus in a 36-year-old indonesian woman. she's been hospitalized and in critical condition. health officials believe the cause is a live chicken she

slaughtered and cooked while traveling in mainland china more than two weeks ago. authorities have suspended imports of poultry. more than 140 people were reported to be infected with the h7n9 strain since february in mainland china and taiwan. u.s. investigators say a commuter train in new york was going nearly three times the speed limit when it derailed in the bronx sunday morning as the train went around a curve. around 120 passengers were onboard. four people were killed. more than 60 injured. the metro north line connects the suburbs of northern new york with downtown manhattan. many commuters use it. investigators said the train was traveling at more than 130 kilometers per hour as it approached the curve. the speed limit on that section

of track is 48 kilometers per hour. investigators are questioning the engineer and other crew members to find out why the train was moving so fast. another beautiful day here in tokyo. our meteorologist robert speta is here with a forecast. >> gene, you're right, sunny skies across most of japan. we did see a little bit of rain showers earlier on today, but the big topic right now is this high pressure coming in from the west. big bubble of it. like to say, big bubble, no trouble, that's what's going to be happening. this is going to be tapering off, much of china, korean peninsula, looking like sunny skies throughout the rest of the week. this does have the sunny weather, even warmer temperatures coming in. the downside is very calm winds puts the capping inversion overhead and while some areas of northeastern china, you're looking at some very poor air indexes in some areas, unhealthy

at this time in shanghai. it's not going anywhere, it gets put up and due to the lack of winds, it's going to be staying right in place and nothing is coming through to stir up the atmosphere. towards the south, northeast monsoon into the philippines and out towards southern thailand, malaysia, northern indonesia. yesterday we had the landslide there in the northern sumatra. today we're seeing more rainfall, it's creeping farther towards the north. malaysia, past 24 hours, you saw one report here about 400 millimeters of rain. on top of that, we could be seeing an additional 200 to 300 millimeters, so flooding and mudslides still a major threat here as we have the weak tropical wave, but it's persistent, lingering in this area and still bringing some heavy rainfall. let's take a look at your temperatures here. hong kong with a high of 22. shanghai at 16, seoul at 9, and tokyo at 15. warming up and getting above

average later on this week. moving over towards the americas, above average, far from actually across much of the north it's going to be getting well below average, blasts of arctic air coming in out of northern canada. already seeing heavy snowfall into the northern rockies. you could be seeing some areas up and over 60 centimeters of snow, even extending towards the west into the western portions of the great lakes, but remember that means some fairly gusty winds, so you have this big stretch of heavy snowfall, gusty winds, that's going to be creating whiteout conditions, but not just that, you're going to be looking at very dangerous wind chills. high temperatures in some areas here, especially up near southern canada, well below zero. winnipeg by friday, minus 20 here for your high. that is not your low and does not take into account the wind chill. hypothermia could set in.

chicago, you don't think of a polar type of weather there for you, but minus 4 for your high, the low will be getting possibly into the teens, so bundle up and if you travel, make sure you have your cell phone charged and people know where you're going, because some of this could be treacherous traveling. as far as going towards europe, cutoff low spin there, and it's just a persistent si of it, so it's been bringing heavy rain showers and looks like we have already seen reports of flooding. high pressure is working its way in, unfortunately, see this off towards the north, that's creating foul weather towards the british isles and scandinavian peninsula. looks like it's getting worse, wednesday into thursday, scotland, fairly destructive winds in your forecast, widespread, about 2 to 4 centimeters of snowfall there, and the scandinavian peninsula is going to be the topic this week. that's your world weather.

here's your extended forecast. officials at a zoo in washington have made a big announcement. they've decided on the name of a giant panda cub. the news drew a warm response from the first ladies of the united states and china. the panda was born in august at smithsonian's national zoo to a mother on loan from china. internet users chose the name in

an online survey. officials held a ceremony for the announcement. they decided to call the cub bao bao, meaning treasure in chinese. >> we are thrilled to welcome this little cub, a cub who exemplifies both the common bond between our nations and the bright future of this magnificent species. and that's "newsline" for this hour. i'm gene otani in tokyo.

the ukrainian president survives a no-confidence vote against him in parliament. this as mass protests continue outside. take downbangkok barriers around their headquarters. the latest and the government moved not to confront protesters. the opposition says despite the partial victory, their fight to bring down the government will go on. and grace kelly's engagement ring, kate middleton's royalty our eye, and the finest pink diamond ever are all on display at the new cartier exhibit in paris. france watching